Citizens Bank Picks Paymentus for Electronic Bill Pay

Citizens Bank has chosen Paymentus to provide payment services for its retail banking customers.

The partnership will see Paymentus offer its Bill Center and Loan Payments tools to Citizens’ customers, the company said in a Wednesday (Feb. 15) news release provided to PYMNTS.

“Consumers expect to operate in real-time, and value holistic and optimized omnichannel experiences that enable them to efficiently and effectively manage their time, resources, and money,” Paymentus founder and CEO Dushyant Sharma said in the release.

“Forward thinking partners like Citizens recognize that providing seamless real-time money movement and bill pay capabilities are essential components to a premier banking experience.”

Bill Center offers customers a “360-degree view” of financial obligations, and provides them with greater payment choice and the ability to get confirmation of payments immediately from their billers.

The company’s loan payment solution lets customers pay for loans using checking/savings, debit card and digital wallets in web, mobile, SMS, IVR, CSR-assisted, chat and IPN channels.

“Customer expectations around payments are rapidly increasing, so integrating real time payments and expanding money movement capabilities within our digital banking platform will help make Citizens the bank of choice for the modern retail bank customer,” said Beth Johnson, the bank’s chief experience officer.

PYMNTS spoke last year with Marcell King, chief innovation officer at Paymentus, who said speed tops the list of consumers’ expectations about payments.

“The speed of money movement has become much more critical,” he said.

At a high level, the most critical goal for financial institutions is to simplify consumers’ financial lives. That means the movement of money itself must be streamlined and modernized, which improves the continuum of bill payments, investing and savings.

King stressed that real-time functionality has been in place for some time, embedded within banks’ infrastructure. That comes through wires, of course — though traditionally, those transactions have been costly.

More recently, the rise of FinTechs and their own solutions, powered by advanced technologies, has allowed real-time money movement between individuals, through the likes of companies such as PayPal, Venmo and Cash App.

Recent research by PYMNTS shows that real-time payments have become invaluable for the worldwide economy, with 86% of businesses that generate yearly revenues of $500 million to $1 billion using this payment method.

“The benefits of real-time payments are self-evident,” PYMNTS wrote earlier this month. “Half of the businesses surveyed reported improved cash flow management capabilities, and 32% enjoyed improved transparency in the payments process.”